Yarn-dyeing: My first skein

When I scroll through my Instagram account every second picture is either a baby, someone knitting or what IG folks refer to as “yarnporn”….that is yarn that is either in someone else's stash or that someone is selling….either way it’s super pretty yarn that I can’t afford to own right now. Then in my scrolling a few weeks ago I spotted a dye-in-progress and was hooked! It’s almost as though I never realized that I could actually try to dye my own yarn.

I ordered a Greener Shades Dye set and some bare 100% Peruvian fingering weight wool from knitpicks and borrowed a book called “Hand dyeing yarn and fleece” from the library – in kindle format because I was I patient which wasn’t the best move since all the beautiful colors were now in grey scale. It gave me an overview of the basics on how to dye and so I just jumped right in.

My scales are broken so I have no idea how much yarn this mini skein actually is but I was aiming for approx.. 25g (a quarter of my 100g skein) so that I could try 4 different ways of dyeing the wool. For my first attempt I hand-painted on three of the provided colors, without mixing shades or even properly calculating how much dye to use (like I said the scale was broken!) so I’m pretty sure I used too much dye. But I couldn’t believe my eyes when I took it out of the dye-pot after steaming it.

It was so bright and cheerful looking - and the wool took up the dye extremely well. It looks pretty great for a first attempt right? I waited rather impatiently for it to dry and then immediately re-skeined it and began a simple st-st swatch to see how it would knit up. I was thrilled to see that it ended up being something that I would actually buy if I saw it in a yarn shop.

That was it – that was all it took, one little mini purplish skein made on a Thursday night and suddenly my whole weekend was planned – I dyed another 3 mini skeins over the weekend, using different colours and different methods and every time I’ve been happily surprised by the results. It’s a little addictive.

I’m share the other three skeins as soon as I’ve knitted up a swatch – I’m trying to keep track of how I produce it, how it looks as an untwisted skein a twisted skein and a knitted swatch so I can learn about what works and what doesn’t.

Now if anyone can suggest something that can be made with tiny amounts of pretty yarn I’m all ears!

Comments

[Kepanie]

Successful dyeing here. It turned out great.

[Caffeine Girl]

I'd say it's a success all right!

[Brandy]

That mini skein looks so great! I have no idea what you can make out of it, but it's so pretty that I'm sure you'll think of something. I can't wait to see the other three.